From Now On
by AlohaBlackbird
Summary: A short and sweet Valentine's Day offering about Stevie stumbling upon a tape made by her parents.


I have to say, I'm not at all a cheesy romantic…but these two really bring it out in me. This is inspired by their cheesy, wonderful, emotional, beautiful vows. Specifically, how Téa said, "And I was just smitten", something about how she looked and her tone of voice just destroyed me in the best possibly way. So here's some quick cheesiness, Happy Valentine's Day!

(PSA: I just picked a date that made the most sense to me because their timeline is a disaster. My husband and I get into embarrassingly long conversations about all the contradictory dates we're given! Haha)

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_**Present**_

Stevie had been in the basement all day going through boxes of her old things. Everything was a complete mess from their move and she wasn't sure how any decisions had been made on what boxes of mementos had stayed at the farm and what had made the trek to D.C. but she was really hoping there was a pile of photos from middle school in there somewhere to help her with a present for a longtime friend.

She opened a new box and after rummaging through for a minute she pulled out a VHS tape. The family had quite a few of those old things floating around, her Dad loved to record everything for as long as she could remember. She was in a nostalgic mood and needed a break from going through boxes so she grabbed the tape and headed upstairs.

She turned on the old VCR in the family room, thankfully it still worked even though there seemed to be a layer of dust on the inside. She took a few steps back as the video started to play and she yelped and felt her face grow red as the shot came into focus was her Dad wearing only boxers getting back into bed with her clearly naked and only covered by a sheet Mom. She rushed to the machine to hit the stop button but paused as her Dad started to speak.

_**1993**_

"I can't believe I get to be married to you for the rest of my life. How did I get so lucky?" Henry said quietly as he ran his fingers along his wife's hairline. His _wife_, he loved how that sounded. Even just thinking that word made him grin. They were snuggled together in the soft hotel bed. This would have to do for their honeymoon for the time being. It consisted of two nights at a cute B&B in the Blue Ridge Mountains and even though it was short and sweet, they hadn't much planned on getting out of bed anyway and the lightly snowcapped mountains provided a picturesque backdrop.

Elizabeth blushed and snuggled in closer to him, she pulled his body flush against hers and peppered light kisses along his jawline. "I think I'm the one who should be asking that question."

He playfully flipped them so he was laying over her and kissed her sweetly before pulling back, leaving her lips red and luscious, "Seriously though, I know it's easy to say things like that, to promise forever, but we both know it's a lot more difficult to actually do it."

Elizabeth nodded, he was right, life wasn't a movie with some prewritten formulaic happy ending.

All of a sudden Henry's eyes lit up and he jumped out of bed. He started rummaging around their bags and Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh at her naked husband. "What the hell are you doing? If you are putting on clothes I'm going to be very disappointed."

Henry laughed, "Absolutely not, I'm very committed to our naked honeymoon." He paused and continued rummaging around until he finally yelled "Ah ha! I knew I packed it." He whipped around with their video camera and a glimmer in his eye.

Elizabeth raised her brow, "This was presumptuous of you Captain McCord but I'm into in, let's wait a couple hours since we just finished."

Henry burst out laughing as he climbed back onto the bed, "That was not at all what I was suggesting babe, but if you're into it…" He trailed off and she shoved him playfully, "Tell me your idea."

"We're so happy right now but we are both aware that it's not always going to be easy. We're going to fight and have bad moments and get frustrated with each other. So what if we make ourselves a video in case we ever need it, one to remind us of how happy we make each other and how much we love each other?"

Elizabeth's eyes lit up, "I think that's a great idea." She shifted to get out of bed and Henry gently grabbed her arm. "Babe, where are you going?"

She turned around and furrowed her brow, "Um, putting on clothes?"

He pulled her back into bed, "No no no, we need to do this now, _exactly_ like this."

She sat up so she was facing him, "Naked with 'just fucked' hair is how we need to immortalize this?"

Henry grinned, "Yes, it's exactly how. It's perfect." He kissed her forehead and turned around to set up the bulky camera and tripod. "I am going to put on boxers while I set this up because it's a little chilly. But I swear I will take them off immediately when I'm done."

Elizabeth laughed, "Deal." While he worked she attempted to fix her hair but she figured for the most part it was a lost cause and she decided to just secure the bedsheet around her body.

Henry finally got the camera steady and focused and climbed back into bed next to his wife.

"Okay, first of all I think we should preface this whole thing with a warning in case our future two possibly three children accidentally find."

Elizabeth laughed, "Oh god this is going to be a train wreck."

Henry laughed and waved her off and turned to face the camera. "Okay children, first of all, we apologize if you've found this. We're on our honeymoon and we've pretty much just eaten and had sex for the past two days."

Elizabeth smacked him lightly, "Henry! You can't say that to our future children!"

He laughed, "Oh it's fine, there's a slim chance they'll actually find this and even if they do it can't be that much of a shock that their parents have sex, how do they think they got here?"

At this point Elizabeth was laughing hysterically at her husband.

Henry turned to face the camera again, still grinning at his wife's laughter, "Kids if you do find this, your Mom thinks I'm hilarious. Don't let her tell you otherwise. But just to preface, this isn't a sex tape and we're just going to say cute things about each other so someday if we ever hit a rough patch and need help remembering why we fell in love, this will help. So if I am in fact addressing our future children I'll just preface this with the warning that this might be weird so it's okay to turn it off right now, but you also might appreciate it because this is real, genuine love and we can all appreciate that." He paused to clear his throat, "okay, now we're talking to our future selves."

Elizabeth suddenly felt a strike of inspiration and reached out to gently squeeze his arm, "Hey, do you mind if I go first?"

He turned to her and grinned, "Of course."

Elizabeth sat up straight and cleared her throat, "Okay, Future Elizabeth. I don't know when you'll be watching this and maybe you've only had one kid so far and maybe you've had more so I assume your body doesn't look like this anymore because you can't go running and do pilates every day and I'm sorry about that but I'm sure the kids were worth it. Wow I'm really getting off track here, back to the point." She turned to Henry and she couldn't help but blush, the love radiating from his face made her shiver. "I know that relationships are hard and you've been through a lot but this guy…he's always been in your corner, from the minute you met him. Remember how persistent he was when you first met? And not in that creepy where a guy thinks he deserves your attention, but in a real, genuine way that made you feel truly safe with someone for the first time in years. How he never minded that you were flighty at first and how he just kept showing up until you never had any doubt he always would. How he always knows when you need to be held and comforted even though you can't admit it to yourself. You better not ever forget how he makes you smile, how his stupid jokes are always so cheesy but they always make you laugh. Remember that he would drive eleven hours to surprise you for just one. Remember the way he kisses you, like his lips could make you forget every awful thing that's happened to you and at the same time make you less afraid for the future. I don't know how things could ever get bad enough that you would forget these things, but I hope I did a decent job of reminding you that you married the best guy in the whole world and you'd be an idiot to ever let him go."

Henry had grabbed ahold of her hand as she was talking and intertwined their fingers. When she had finished speaking she looked over at him and dove in for a kiss. She thought she was going to cry but Henry wrapped his other arm around her and she sunk into him. She pulled away, "Baby, let's not turn this into a sex tape after we promised it wasn't."

Henry busted up laughing and tried to bury his head in her chest to calm himself down. He caught his breath and looked up at the camera, it was his turn. "Future Henry, first of all just let me say that I'm sure you've kept it tight and I'm sure you look great, I'm proud of you, buddy."

Elizabeth had to bite her finger she was laughing so hard, her husband was such a dork.

Henry grinned and continued, "Second of all, let me say that if you ever let this woman go you are the dumbest man on earth. Elizabeth is your dream girl-hell she's everyone's dream girl-she's beautiful inside and out and you couldn't do better than her on your best day."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the shoulder, "Come on."

He looked her straight in the eye, "I'm serious." He turned back to the camera, "Seriously Henry, you will never regret anything more in your life than if you ever let her get away. You guys have been through too much and all the bad times couldn't erase even a millimeter of the good. Remember how she laughs, that deep belly-laugh when she tries not to snort; remember how she gets so competitive at board games that she throws pieces across the room and starts yelling in every language she can; remember how leaves dirty notes in your religion textbooks just so you come home and tell her how you had to explain why you were blushing to your professors?""

Elizabeth suddenly cut in, "Okay, this maybe is starting to make me sound awful!"

Henry laughed and turned to her once again, "No! You never sound awful and I love all these things so much." He turned back to the camera, "You need to remember how when you get a migraine she rubs your temples and mumbles Beatles songs in your ears so you can relax and fall asleep and how even though she's a terrible cook she tries to make you cinnamon rolls on Sunday mornings. And if all the little things don't work, which by the way means you've turned into a complete idiot, just remember the way you feel right now. Like nothing could ever stop you, you're so in love and love isn't about waking up every day and just automatically feeling warm and fuzzy toward each other. Love is trying your hardest every single day, it's knowing that a relationship isn't always 50/50, sometimes it's 60/40 or even 90/10. Sometimes it's hard for one of you and sometimes it's hard for both of you, but the important thing is just to keep trying because Elizabeth is always going to be worth it."

Elizabeth had gone from laughing to crying at this point. She waved her hand in front of her and covered her face with the other. "Okay, we have to turn this off now before I start bawling. Maybe let's just grab a new tape and start over because I don't want this ugly cry face immortalized."

He turned back to her, "No way, I'm keeping it forever." He dove in to kiss her and she sunk into the kiss, moaning as his tongue discovered her mouth all over again. After a minute she realized the camera was still on them and shoved him off her, "Oh my god, seriously turn it off before this does turn into a sex tape."

He laughed and got up to turn it off and she had a thought. "On the other hand, we should probably make one while we're young and hot, right?"

He paused and turned back around to face her, "Seriously?"

She nodded, "Yeah, why not? No time like the present to immortalize our young, hot bodies."

With that Henry elicited a growl and she squealed as he jumped onto her.

_**Present**_

"Oh god please stop it you don't want to see the rest of this." Stevie jumped at the sound of her Mom's voice behind her but quickly jumped to stop the tape because it was clearly heading toward something she _really_ didn't want to see.

She stopped the video and turned toward her Mom. "Sorry Mom, I found it in the basement and I thought it might be a video from when we were kids and then it was just…" she trailed off, she honestly didn't know what it was but she had felt strangely comforted and at the same time pained by the video.

Elizabeth frowned, she noticed her oldest looked a little perplexed. "What's wrong?"

Stevie sighed and sat down on the couch, Elizabeth walked around to sit next to her. "You guys have always been so cheesy and into each other and I think it's easy to just brush that off but underneath all that it's so obvious you guys have this incredibly profound connection and I just…I don't think I'm ever going to find that."

Elizabeth reached out to pull Stevie in and she rubbed her back soothingly. "Oh sweetheart, you have plenty of time. The world was different back then. People got married earlier, Dad was going off to war, we had very different circumstances than you do and we both had to grow up so fast."

Stevie nodded, she knew that and her failed engagement had taught her that she probably wasn't even ready to settle down, but that didn't mean she didn't want to feel about someone the way her parents felt about each other. "I think I'm just afraid you guys have such a rare connection and I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed if I don't end up having what you have."

"You're not going to have exactly what we have, because no one has the same type of love as anyone else. You have to figure out who you are and what makes you happy and find someone who understands and adds to that."

Stevie hugged her Mom and nodded into her shoulder. She appreciated her words. She pulled back after a minute, "Can I ask you one thing?"

Her Mom smiled, "You can ask me anything."

Stevie bit her lip, "Did you ever need to watch the tape?

She smiled and shook her head, "There have definitely been moments-months even-where it's been really hard but I've never once had even a little thought that I'd be better off without him and even when I was so angry I couldn't stand to look at him, I never forgot that I married the best one."

Stevie smiled and wiped a rogue tear from her eye, "So did he. I'm glad you guys are the cheesy, romantic way that you are, even though it drives me crazy sometimes."

Elizabeth laughed, "Thank you. I love you, sweetheart."

Stevie leaned in for another hug, "I love you too, Mom."

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I hope you enjoyed this! I'm on a lil vacay so I've got a couple things on the backburner I'm really going to try to post. I know I've said this before, but I just want to be clear that I know my update times are forever between, but I'm getting my PhD and I do so much writing for school that it's very difficult to bring myself to write for fun. Thanks for sticking with me & thanks for reading this lil one shot.

**Please leave a review!**


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